Raw Deal

by Neal Pollack

on 10/26/07 at 12:16 PM

I was doing something very important in the living room tonight. Regina stomped in, her eyes ablaze and indignant, her frowning muscles working very hard. From time to time, like many readers of left-wing news websites, she personifies the angry yet impotent citizen.

"Well, our illustrious state government has done it again," she said.

"The Suns are on," I said.

"It's a preseason game," she said.

"Who are the Suns playing?" Elijah asked.

"The Denver Nuggets."

"Who would call themselves the Nuggets?"

"Good point."

"Are you listening to me?" Regina said.

"No."

"Well, you should be. The state legislature just snuck through a law, those sneaky bastards, that will basically make it illegal to sell raw milk in the state after January 1. And Schwarzenegger signed it!"

"Oh."

"This is serious, Neal."

"I can see that."

"Don't belittle me!"

"I'm not."

"You have to write your friends with blogs who...who..."

"I'm on it," I said.

Advocacy after the bump.

For more than a year now, Regina has been probiotic, filling our bellies
with fine, rich raw milk from Organic Pastures. I'd never really
considered raw milk before she started doing this, and raw milk tends
to get a bad rap, but none of us are vomiting blood yet. In fact, we're
all pretty damn healthy.

Assembly Bill #1735 (AB 1735) was signed by the Governor and
becomes law on January 1st 2008. Contained in this law are new
standards for raw milk. These new standards require 10 coliform
bacteria per ml or less. This standard does not increase the safety of
raw milk and it will make the production of organic raw milk in
California nearly impossible. Under the old tried and true old
standards that have been in existence for forty years or more,
coliforms could be 50 or 500. It did not matter.

Coliforms are
not pathogenic. They do not cause disease. They actually act very
effectively to protect raw milk against pathogens like E. coli 0157:H7.
Coliforms make vitamin K, B-1, B-2, B-6 and B-12 and without coliforms,
and the beneficial colicins they produce we would die.